Failure is probably the most exhausting experience a person ever has. There is nothing more tiring than not succeeding.

We experience this tiredness in two ways: as start-up fatigue(疲惫) and performance fatigue. In the former case, we keep putting off a task because it has either too boring or too difficult. And the longer we delay it, the more tired we feel.

     Such start-up fatigue is very real, even if not actually physical, not something in our muscles and bones. The solution is obvious though perhaps not easy to apply: always handle the most difficult job first.

Years ago, I was asked to write 102 essays on the great ideas of some famous authors. Applying my own rule, I determined to write them in alphabetical(按字母顺序), never letting myself leave out a tough idea. And I always started the day's work with the difficult task of essay-writing. Experience proved that the rule works.

Performance fatigue is more difficult to handle. Though willing to get started, we cannot seem to do the job right. Its difficulties appear so great that, however hard we work, we fail again and again. In such a situation, I work as hard as I can-then let the unconscious take over.

      When planning Encyclopaedia Britannica (《大英百科全书》), I had to create a table of contents based on the topics of its articles. Nothing like this had ever been done before, and day after day I kept coming up with solutions, but none of them worked. My fatigue became almost unbearable.

      One day, mentally exhausted, I wrote down all the reasons why this problem could not be solved. I tried to convince myself that the trouble was with the problem itself, not with me. Relived, I sat back in an easy chair and fell asleep.

An hour later, I woke up suddenly with the solution clearly in mind. In the weeks that followed, the solution which had come up in my unconscious mind provided correct at every step. Though I worked as hard as before, I felt no fatigue. Success was now as exciting as failure had been depressing.

      Human beings, I believe must try to succeed. Success, then, means never feeling tired.

    Generally speaking, college graduation brings both the satisfaction of academic achievement and the expectation of a well-paid job. But for 6,000 graduates at San Jose State this year, there's uncertainty as they enter one of the worst job markets in decades.

    Ryan Stewart has a freshly minted degree in religious studies, but no job prospects. “You look at everybody's parents and neighbors, and they're getting laid off and don't have jobs,” said Stewart. “Then you look at the young people just coming into the workforce.., it's just scary.”

    When those graduates entered college, the future never looked brighter. But in the four years they've been here, the world outside has changed dramatically. “Those were the exciting times, lots of dot-com opportunities, exploding offers, students getting top dollar with lots of benefits,” said Cheryl Allmen-Vinnidge, of the San Jose State Career Centre. “Times have changed. It's a new market. The job situation is grim (严峻的) now.” Cheryl Allmen-Vinnidge ought to know. She runs the San Jose State Career Centre, (it is) sort of a crossroads between college and the real world. Allmen-Vinnidge says students who do find jobs after college have done their homework. “The typical graduate who does have a job offer started working on it two years ago. They've postured themselves well during the summer. They've had several internships (实习) ,” she said. And they've majored in one of the few fields that are still hot—like chemical engineering, accounting or nursing—where average starting salaries have actually increased over last year. Other popular fields (like information systems management, computer science, and political science) have seen big declines in starting salaries.

    Ryan Stewart (he had hoped to become a teacher) may just end up going back to school. “I'd like to teach college some day and that requires more schooling, which would be great in a bad economy,” he said.

    It is true more students are able to receive college education. It is also true that they will have to face fiercer competition in the job market as they graduate. It becomes harder and harder for the current graduates to get a foothold in job markets, but many of them have no choice but to follow the beaten track. To some students a degree may not be ticket to instant wealth. For now, they can only hope its value will increase over time.

    Helen Monson has always been interested in helping her community. Her first volunteer experience was for the American Red Cross when she was in high school. When she was a school teacher, she also found time to volunteer.

After she retired, she started volunteering to help the old. When her father was older, he was not able to see as well as he used to, which made her sad because he had always enjoyed reading.

    She decided it would be fun to read to elderly people in her community. She also helped one woman write her stories. Ann was almost 100 years old, and Helen wrote down information about her life when she visited Ann. She put the information in a book and got it published. Ann was very excited to share her life story with her children and grandchildren.

    One day Helen read an article in the newspaper about refugees (难民) who needed to learn English. Now, she meets once a week with Sahra, a 38-year-old woman from Somalia. Sahra is learning reading and writing skills. Helen gave Sahra a camera and asked her to take pictures of her daily life. She developed the pictures, and then asked Sahra questions about them. In the end they wrote a book together and used the photos in the book. This helped Sahra learn many new words about her everyday life.

    Helen says, “The most rewarding part of volunteer work is becoming friends with the people I help. They enrich my life as well as I enrich theirs.”

    Want to see 16 sunrises in one day? Float in zero gravity? Be one of the few to have gazed upon our home planet from space? In just four years' time, and for an astronomical $9.5 million dollars, it's claimed you can.

    What's being billed as the world's first luxury space hotel, Aurora Station, was announced Thursday at the Space 2.0 Summit in San Jose, California. Developed by US-based space technology start-up Orion Span, the fully modular space station will host six people at a time, including two crew members, for 12-day trips of space travel. It plans to welcome its first guests in 2022.

    “Our goal is to make space accessible to all,” Frank Bunger, CEO and founder of Orion Span, said in a statement. “Upon launch, Aurora Station goes into service immediately, bringing travelers into space quickly and at a lower price point than ever seen before.” While a $10 million trip is outside the budget of most people's two-week vacations, Orion Span claims to offer a real astronaut experience.

    During their 12-day adventure, the super-rich travelers will fly at a height of 200 miles above the Earth's surface in Low Earth Orbit, or LEP, where they will see incredible views of the blue planet. The hotel will orbit Earth every 90 minutes, which means guests will see around 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours.

    Activities on board include taking part in research experiments such as growing food while in orbit--which guests can take home for a super-smug souvenir—and soaring over their hometown. Guests can have live video chats with their less-fortunate loved ones back home via high-speed wireless Internet access and, upon return to Earth, will be greeted with a specially arranged hero's welcome. While enjoying the thrills of zero gravity, the travelers will be able to float freely through the hotel, taking in views of the northern and southern Aurora from the station's windows.

    DepositsHYPERLINK “https://www.orionspan.com/aurora-station-reservations”（订金）are already being a HYPERLINK“http://www.orisonspan.com/aurora-station-reservations”cHYPERLINK“http://www.orionspan.com/aurora-station-reservations” cepted for future stays on the space hotel. The $80,000 is fully returnable, should applicants find themselves unable to rise to the full $9.5 million. Travelers will complete a three-month Orion Span Astronaut Certification (OSAC) program before takeoff. Orion Span has a team of space industry veterans who together have more than 140 years of human space experience.

    Last year, three experienced storm chasers were killed in a tornado(龙卷风)in the US, but despite this the number of people going in search of tornadoes is growing. What drives them to take risks and look for danger? The man at the wheel glanced in the back-view mirror and then slowly turned around. "Don't put this in your program." he said. His wife in the passenger seat laughed. He lowered the window and killed the engine. The wind rushed in from surrounding wheat fields.

    Then, from behind, the sound of footsteps approached on the dirt road. It was a moment of peace after hours of speedy racing through the American grassland. There had been excited shouts about where a tornado might form and how we would be there if it did. We were crazy on the trail a moment ago. But now, everyone was very cool. A Kansas state trooper(骑警) introduced himself through the window. There was pretended surprise when he said how fast we had been going. Really? Wow, sorry.

    Val Cator handed over his driver's license. His wife, Amy, took the registration out of the glove box. Val explained they were storm chasers with Channel 9 News out of Oklahoma City—though it was hardly necessary. Their huge black truck has lightning bolts(闪电)and Storm Tracker 9 painted on the sides.

    Val pointed to the radar on the laptop open next to him and said those red and green dots suggested a tornado could form this afternoon. The state trooper was untouched. "I've got that in my car too." he said. People here keep a close eye on the weather. It's part of living in the tornado alley. Every year some town or other is blown off the map by tornadoes that can reach 300 miles an hour.

    Val and Amy are just two of hundreds of possibly thousands of trackers who speed around with computers and cameras hoping to catch one of these beautiful, deadly storms. I'd joined them to learn why the number of trackers keeps growing. Why are people taking real risks—beyond the steady diet of rest-stop junk food—to watch weather?

    Last year, a tornado killed three of the most experienced storm chasers. It picked up and threw their car as easily as you would a piece of paper. Dozens of other chasers were hurt in the same storm. They were crowded on a few roads when the tornado suddenly expanded and ate them. Val and Amy were there that day but still, in their words, chase aggressively.

    Gabriella's family immigrated to the US from Peru when she was two years old. As a compound bilingual (双语使用者), Gabriella develops two linguistic codes at the same time, with a set of concepts, learning both English and Spanish. Her teenage brother, on the other hand, might be a coordinate bilingual, working with two sets of concepts, learning English in school, Spanish at home. Finally, Gabriella's parents are likely to be subordinate bilinguals who learned a second language by translating it into their mother tongue.

    Regardless of accent and pronunciation, all types of bilingual people can become fully proficient in a language. It seems that the difference may not be apparent. But recently brain imaging technology has given a glimpse into how specific aspects of language learning affect the bilingual brain. It's well known that the brain's left hemisphere (半球) is in charge of logical processes, while the right hemisphere is more active in emotional and social ones. Language involves both types of functions. "Critical Period Theory" says children learn languages more easily because their developing brains let them use both hemispheres in language learning, while in most adults, language relies on one hemisphere, usually the left.

    Before the 1960s, bilingualism was considered a handicap that slowed the children's development by forcing them to spend too much energy distinguishing between languages. But a recent study did show that bilingualism may make you smarter. It does make your brain more complex, healthier, and more actively engaged, and even if you didn't have the good fortune of learning a second language like a child, it's never too late to do yourself a favor and make the linguistic leap from "Hello" to "Hola" "Bonjour" or "nihao" because when it comes to our brains, a little exercise can go a long way.